Patch of wet sand for my levis

[gothra]

Happy New Year everyone! I'm sorry but I have yet another question to start the new year...

My levis is not digging in the moist sand, but he is digging everywhere else in his tank. I don't know why he isn't going to the moist zone, and I'm worried that he might not get enough moisture if he doesn't go there.

Just wondering how everyone deal with the moist area? Do you put anything to cover it? Or do you leave it as an open wet mound of sand? Right now, I have a plastic hide on top of it. I have seen him climbing on top of the hide, but never in it.

He is settling and eating very well though, I feed him 5 times a week, he eats 3 dusted crickets each time.

 

[oli]

Hey man, thought I'd jump in here as nobody is helpin you out. I put a hide on the moist section of my enclosure and the levis usually enjoys this moist hide. I don't make it wet, just moist. I put this moist end on the opposite side as the heated side (and I put a hide on the heat tape). Sounds like you are feeding this girl a good amount of food, which seems good if she will eat it. It has to be a she if she is eating like that, don't believe it is a him. Sometimes geckos will not go into hides on their own for some unknown reasons, maybe they are scared, or just oblivious to its existance as an area of shelter. I have encouraged these animals by giving them a little push to go into the enclosure and once they have entered they know it is there and they continue to use it. Sometimes i will put another type of hide and that will do the trick too. I wouldn't worry that she isn't getting enough moisture, she is probably hanging on the heated end to digest all those crickets she eats. When she is getting ready to shed, I'm sure she will use the moist part, perhaps even make a little personal burrow. Make sure the moist end is at least 2 inches deep (or 5cm). Hope this helps you out a little bro.

 

[Jungle Jewels]

levis wet spot...hehe

our levis are quite the little diggers spending most of their time towards the warmer dry areas, however come time to shed they spend most of the day in the moist hide, for this we just use a covered deli cup with a mix of organic soil/vermiculite/pete at about a 1:1:1 ratio it holds the moisture extremely well only needing a mist once a week or so, we use the same for the U. milii, leos, cresties and gargoyles, the cresties and gargoyles use it a lot more than the others even though their habitats are planted, they seem to enjoy the moist hide as it sits 1/2 on a heat pad so it's toastie in there, hope this helps out

 

[gothra]

Thanks for the reply! I got him as a male from Steve Sykes, so I'm pretty positive he is a male (eventhough I do not know how to check the gender myself). Just a couple days after I made this post, he found his way to the moist sand area and dug a burrow beneath the hide box; and he remains in there 95% of time now. I didn't want to risk the heavy hide box with moist sand collapsing on him, so I took out the box and only left the lid there to cover up his burrow.

Ever since he made his burrow, he began eating less (because he doesn't come out everyday) - now he eats every 2nd day only about 1-2 crickets each time. I once lift up the lid and gave him some silkworms and he ate 3 of them too. Eventhough he is a good eater, he only gained 1 gram in a month. He is now 15g. (My amyae on the other hand gained 3g!)

You can see he blocked the entrance to his burrow.

 

[Jungle Jewels]

ours "lock" the door too, where as the milli don't they seem to prefer to keep the entrance open to view
just got back from an excellent NY show, we sold a bunch of dragons and veiled chams a few cresties and some leo morphs
scored a nice pair of N. Levis to add to our colony
also saw some nice N. Wheeleri there for some good prices as well as some nice leaftails... but we were able to resist...for now haha

 

[gothra]

Some updates on my levis. I almost never see him eversince he made his burrow under the black lid. Actually, the only moment I see him is when I need to lift the lid to do misting. He is also eating a lot less now, about 2 medium/small crickets every 4-5 days. I wish he'd eat more. He has been fluctuating between 18-19g for 2 months, is that normal weight for a male levis?

p.s. I missed the days when he wouldn't burrow and ate tonnes...

 

[gothra]

In his burrow:

 

[oli]

when my levis are in a burrow and it's time to feed them I push a little sand down into the burrow, and he comes running out all alarmed. Then i fill in the burrow real quick and throw some crickets in the enclosure and they forget about what happened and start eating. It is better for them to sit on the warm end after eating then going into a cool moist burrow. If you don't want him to burrow at all, just don't offer him enough sand to make a burrow in. Just put a hide on top of a half inch of sand and keep that moist. He should be eating more so that's what I recommend doing. There are no drawbacks to not letting them burrow... this should help you.

 

[gothra]

Thanks for the tips.